NZ triplets among 19 killed in Qatar fire

29 May 2012, 7:23 pm   -   Source: AAP
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Two-year-old Kiwi triplets are among 19 people killed after a fire broke out in a shopping mall in the Qatari capital of Doha.

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Two-year-old Kiwi triplets are among 19 people killed after a fire broke out in a shopping mall in the Qatari capital of Doha.

Lillie, Jackson and Willsher Weekes were at the Gympanzee childcare centre on the first floor of the Villaggio mall when the fire broke out late Monday morning.

Twelve people remain in hospital following the fire which claimed the lives of 13 children: seven girls, six boys, along with four women teachers and two firefighters.

According to media reports, many of the fire's victims died from smoke inhalation.

The mall remains closed on Tuesday. Reports from the Doha News and Al Jazeera say fatalities also include three children from Spain, and others from France, Japan and South Africa.

The dead teachers include three Filipinas and one from South Africa. The fire's youngest identified victim so far is 18-month-old Omar Emraan from South Africa, the Doha News reports.

Abdullah bin Nasser Khalifa Al Thani, Qatar's minister of state for interior affairs, said a combination of heavy smoke, heat and narrow corridors in the shopping complex forced emergency services to seek an alternative point of entry.

The Kiwi triplets' grandfather Ron Turner told Radio New Zealand his daughter Jane had called him with the news shortly after the fire.

He says Jane and her husband Martin were numbed by the loss.

The children had been attending the centre for two or three months. Martin Weekes was chief executive of Eden Park from 1996-2000 and moved to Qatar in 2007. He is a senior adviser at Qatar government agency q.media.

His wife held a coffee morning at their home in the Gulf State each month for other multiple birth mothers and those expecting twins or triplets.

Mr Turner told the broadcaster he and his wife were flying to Qatar on Tuesday evening. Prime Minister John Key earlier confirmed the deaths of the triplets.

Consular staff were travelling from Saudi Arabia to offer assistance to the family. Former New Zealand journalist Tarek Bazley was in the mall when the fire broke out, saying he heard a benign alarm which sounded like a repeating doorbell, but he was told by an attendant that "it's usually a false alarm".

"About 10 minutes later someone else, a member of the public, raced through this area and said `everybody out, you've got to get out now, the other half of the mall is on fire'."

Television footage shows those that were rescued escaped through a hole in the roof cut by firefighters. Unconfirmed reports said two managers were arrested and may face charges.

The fire is the second deadliest tragedy to strike the wealthy, oil-rich Gulf state. In 2009, 30 people died when an accommodation barge sank off the coast of Doha.

Qatar, with a population of just under two million, including a significant expatriate population, was a former British protectorate and gained independence in 1971.

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